HOUSTON – To combat a growing trend, the FBI has a task force dedicated to tracking down United States citizens who travel to foreign countries to have sex with children. The FBI refers to it as child sex tourism.
"We're not going to tolerate the people of the United States going and ruining children anywhere on earth," said FBI National Director James Comey during a recent trip to Houston. "We're going to lock some people up for a long period of time."
One of the hubs for this task force is in Houston, primarily focusing on cases in Central and South America. Since 2010, the Houston-based task force has identified 200 international child sex victims.
"A pedophile's mind doesn't end once he hits the border," said FBI Special Agent Patrick Fransen. "We're notified on a weekly basis of U.S. sex offenders traveling to countries in Central and South America."
Fransen said many so-called child sex tourists crave the anonymity that a foreign land can provide and mistakenly think they can escape U.S. law by leaving the country. Under the PROTECT Act, the U.S. can prosecute a citizen who travels to a foreign country to have sex with children. If convicted, a person can be sentenced to 30 years in prison.
"We have seen large amounts of U.S. citizens traveling to Thailand, Cambodia, Philippines, Mexico, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua (and) Brazil," Fransen said.
Fransen said many of those who engage in child sex tourism travel to impoverished countries and rationalize their behavior by thinking they're actually helping poverty stricken children by paying them for sex.
One of the most high profile cases worked by the Houston task force involves William Vahey, who was a convicted sex offender in the U.S., so he went abroad, teaching and coaching middle school students at 10 schools in nine countries.
FBI officials said they believe Vahey molested more than 90 children over four decades. When his crimes came to light, Vahey killed himself.
"He took an easy way out," Fransen said. "A few individuals have killed themselves because of being victimized by him."
Another recent case investigated by the Houston task force involves William McGrath. Federal court documents and his public LinkedIn profile shows McGrath was a civilian contractor working at Soto Cano Air Base in Honduras. McGrath is accused of having a sexual relationship with a 13-year-old Honduran girl.
Court records read that McGrath told FBI agents he thought the girl was 16 and denied the money he gave her was in exchange for sex.
However, court records include a Facebook chat obtained by federal agents showing that McGrath wrote, "She's in love with me, that is part of the problem with the law ..." and "It was an error on my part a while ago, but I'm in trouble because of her; it's my fault."
McGrath has pleaded not guilty and is scheduled to go on trial in Houston this summer.
The U.S. State Department estimates more than 1 million children a year are forced into the global commercial sex trade; millions more succumb to what is considered non-commercial sexual conduct. Comey said this is why cracking down on child sex tourism is a top priority for the Bureau.
"There isn't such a thing as their children and our children, they're all children," Comey said.
Comey said strengthening relationships with foreign governments is part of this work. He noted that the FBI has agents embedded in more than 80 countries around the world.
"The relationships they build with state and local enforcement in those countries is how we find out when some sicko is landing in that country in order to victimize children," Comey said.